Tag Archives | Jars on Vacation

In recent years, I’ve developed something of a habit of planning vacations to jar-friendly destinations and them coming back here to sharewhatIsaw. Recently, Scott and I spent a week bopping around Lancaster County and the Lehigh Valley, and really, there’s no better place for jar spotting.

For the first half of our trip, we stayed in a fabulous condo across the street from Lancaster’s Central Market. On Tuesday morning, we zigzagged our way through the market (it’s only open Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday). Scott grazed on samples of baked goods while I snapped a few photos of jars.

I loved the preserves and charcuterie on offer at Rooster Street Provisions. I kicked myself that I didn’t get any of their cured meats.

I love that Linden Dale Farms is selling their yogurt in jars. They’re a type that is rated for home preserving, so not only can you get some delicious yogurt, but then you can turn around and can up some jam or pickles!

Hot sauces, jams, jellies, and pickles as far as the eye can see!

Amish-preserved foods. I used this photo as a header for a post recently, and a few folks thought it was my stuff. It’s not! So sorry for the confusion!

This photo is from our visit to Good’s Store in East Earl, PA. It’s one of my favorite places to guy jars, because they devote an entire aisle to canning gear and they’re always fully stocked. I loved this tower of the blue heritage jars and couldn’t help but pick up a couple boxes.

On the last day of our trip, we were headed to a friend’s annual barbecue in Allentown and so stopped at the Allentown Farmers’ Market to pick up something to bring. I couldn’t resist snapping an Instagram photo of this wall of preserves.

We’ve been back home for just over 24 hours and already, our vacation week is starting fade in the presence of regular life. While I unpack, do laundry and find spots for some of the treasures we picked up, here are a few jars from the trip.

Baby pattypan squash, on their way to being pickled.

We finished dinner at Ma(i)son in Lancaster City with a half pint jar full of chocolate peanut butter goodness.

All gone.

A couple of the vintage jars I picked up.

Spelling out the name of this blog. It was too bad I couldn’t find a better ‘F’ in that box of blocks.

Those pattypans, all pickled and delicious.

Making refrigerator pickles on a picnic table. You’ll see more of these soon, in an unexpected place.

Every year since we’ve been together, Scott and I have gone off on a Memorial Day Weekend vacation. The last three years, we escaped to Lancaster County, PA for a bit of clean air and green views. I was always particularly charmed by that destination because Lancaster happens to be a hotbed for home canning (we have the Amish and Mennonite communities to thank for that).

This year, instead of heading west to Lancaster, we pointed the car towards Northampton, MA. Some of our dear friends moved there from Philly back in March and we felt it only right to scope out their new digs and help them break in their guest room. Happily, the Northampton area did not lack for jars. Here’s just a bit of what I spotted.

These first three photos were all taken at The Roost, an amazingly wonderful cafe at the corner of Market and Bridge Streets in Northampton, MA. They use jars for everything there, which I love. They also happen to serve seriously good coffee. We stopped there for a brief rest after parading through multiple used bookstores (for Scott) and junk stores (for me) and my only wish was that I could have stayed a bit longer. I long for a cafe like this one to open in Philadelphia. I couldn’t find a website for Roost, but here’s a blog post from a neighboring shop (Sticks and Bricks) about the design and construction of the cafe.

Jars ready to be used for bulk purchases at the Brattleboro, VT Co-op. They were pre-marked with the tare to make it easy for the cashiers.

Jars filled with herbs for sale at the Northampton Co-op. How great that they’re using some vintage bailing wire jars.

And finally, a bonus photo by Scott, of me dispensing bulk maple syrup into a pint jar at the Brattleboro, VT Co-op. As you can see, it brought me great quantities of joy.

Okay, so maybe not quite as many jars as in Lancaster, but still, more than you might otherwise think.